Doesn't matter if it is a big or small purchase, credit cards are a favorite
method to pay. "Anything from groceries to a $1000 gizmo, my Blue Cash
pays for all." says Linda proudly.
Credit card holders have unmistakable faith in their credit cards and thrive
endlessly over the entire hassle free shopping experience credit cards offer.
But, how many of them are aware of dangers of identity theft?
When asked about this topic, Linda is pretty much positive "Yes, I hear
of such cases everyday, but my credit card has never given me any bad experience."
Is this overconfidence about plastic, that makes us callous and gives an opportunity
for identity theft?
Sadly, yes but now the government has taken steps regarding such sensitive
concerns and safeguarding the credit card holder's private information from
the prying eyes of muggers. A new law will take effect in Minnesota which makes
it illegal to store a customer's PIN (Personal Identification Number), security
code or magnetic stripe information for more than 48 hours after the transaction
is authorized.
If any merchant doesn't respect this deadline, penalties are inevitable. Banks,
credit unions and financial institutions will be given powers to sue any merchants
who are caught keeping private financial data, in case of any violation of respective
laws.
Named as the Plastic Card Security Act, the merits of this law were soon visible
to many other sate governments and taking example from Minnesota- Texas, California
and Massachusetts are in the process of adapting it.
Plastic Card Security Act. is based on the similar standards developed by Visa,
MasterCard and American Express, which require merchants to implement plethora
of security controls to protect consumers' identity and payment data. The need
for such a law was pushed by the fact that a lot of retailers, were unnecessarily
keeping private and financial information of credit card holders on their systems
for too long, thus posing a grave security risk.
People have welcomed this law, though not everyone looked thoroughly convinced.
The very fact that there is a hand in glove relation between the credit card
companies and merchants, it will effect the Plastic Card Security Act.
The usual practice with merchants regarding credit card holder's data is that
no personal information is kept after a customer's transaction has been authorized.
The date, time, lane number and last four digits of the credit-card number are
automatically purged after 90 days. Now the Plastic Card Security Act has taken
this security measure a step further and made it mandatory for them to purge
the data within 48 hours, and makes them accountable for any security breach.
